Torii Hunter: It would be "difficult and uncomfortable" to play with gay teammate

This past year has been a coming out party for gay-friendly professional athletes.

In Minnesota, Vikings punter Chris Kluwe became the NFL's most aggressive straight ally, and a spokesman for the campaign to a defeat a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. In our October cover story on Kluwe, "Game Changer," many speculated his position could signify a turning point, and pave the way for the first openly gay professional athlete in a major American sport.

Outsports.com is characterizing 2012 as "The Rise of the Straight Ally," citing dozens of steps forward in the sports universe throughout the year, including boxer Orlando Cruz and former Pittsburgh Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy coming out as gay.

But of course not every pro athlete is itching for the first gay player to make history. Here's what former Twins outfielder Torii Hunter told the L.A. Times:

But former Angels outfielder Torii Hunter, among baseball's most thoughtful and intelligent players, isn't kidding when he says an "out" teammate could divide a team.

"For me, as a Christian ... I will be uncomfortable because in all my teachings and all my learning, biblically, it's not right," he says. "It will be difficult and uncomfortable."

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Don't know why it would be a big deal. Most of us work alongside openly gay people in white collar jobs. Even though I share Torii's religious views, the presence of gays doesn't have any impact on me one way or the other. Live and let live, and let God sort it out later. Good thing for Torii that he is black, as that will blunt any backlash he receives for these comments. Notice how much nicer Kluwe is to Torii, than he was to Andy Parrish?

All i gotta say is respect freedom of speech and fuck off with diggin deep on this.. It is What it Is.. He aint our Govenor or some shit....Do has a good heart.. Probably fucked up on this one ... JUST CHILL. DO YOU

I will give Torii the benefit of the doubt until more is uncovered from this. As a general rule of thumb: be wary of any quotes employing the use of awkward ellipses (...). In this case, it is obvious the quote was crafted in a way that would get the most knee-jerk reaction from people. The ellipses indicates there was something said between "For me, as a Christian ..." and "I will be uncomfortable.." Notice, the sentence, if read as one, isn't even grammatically correct. This is obviously "taken out of context," and there very well could be a phrase in there somewhere where he is explaining a rhetorical context or talking about something completely off-topic; we just don't know without the full word-for-word interview. I'm not saying that this validates anything he said, but let's not jump to any conclusions until we hear from Torii, who has so far said exactly what the quote represents: two quotes were mashed into one in order to get a rise out of the public.

@senatortombstone Well dummy Andy Parrish is a political operative who has built his career on hating gay people and Torii is an athlete that says stupid things on occasion. Only a racist idiot settles on race as the big difference between those two men.

@MicheleBachmann@senatortombstone Well, I am most certainly not an idiot (FYI: an idiot is an individual with an IQ of 30 or so - mine is higher than that), and "racist" is just an ad hominem attack that leftists use when they have no cogent arguments available to them to defend their positions, which is almost always the case. In any event, Torii Hunter is just one individual with an opinion. Personally, I disagree with it, and do not think that working along gays is any deal at all. Maybe he is worried that a gay teammate will check him out, in the locker room? In the end, though, a black who makes these sorts of comments will receive a less hostile backlash than a white - even from the pro-gay Citypages.